Email security should be a part of every business’s cybersecurity infrastructure. Cyber attacks involving email are one of the most common ways hackers deliver malware and cause network disruptions and data breaches. The best practices to secure your email involve protocols and systems that prevent hacking by eavesdroppers, spammers and domain spoofers. They also include passwords and two-factor authentication.
Use Strong Passwords
Utilizing solid passwords is one of the foremost critical email security hones to execute. If programmers get a hold of your secret word, they can access your email and other accounts like your online keeping money and social media. Ensure your password is long and has a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols to make it difficult to guess. Utilizing diverse passwords for each online account is additionally a great thought rather than reusing the same watchword for numerous locales. This way, if one site gets hacked, it won’t be a matter of time before your other accounts are compromised. Another important email security practice is to use spam filters and malware protection software. These tools can stop malicious emails and attachments before they reach your users’ inboxes, helping to prevent phishing attacks and data breaches. They can also help block spam, a major source of cyberattacks. It can prevent employees from wasting time and energy deleting and responding to spam messages that may contain malware or phishing links.
Create a Game Plan
Email is an important way for organizations to communicate, but it also presents a major attack surface that attackers target. Whether through spam attacks, malware, or phishing, email can be used to breach corporate networks and steal sensitive information. However, implementing email security solutions reduce the threat of attackers breaching enterprise systems and keeps employees protected. For example, many emails contain malicious attachments that can infect a user’s system with ransomware, steal passwords, or even encrypt files. Enabling multi-factor authentication on your email accounts can protect against these threats. Multi-factor authentication requires a user to provide more than just a password to access their account, such as a code sent to their phone or a physical token like a fingerprint. Another good practice is encouraging workers to use business email for business communications. Mixing personal and work emails can expose data to risk, especially if one of the accounts gets hacked. Employees should also be encouraged not to reuse passwords between accounts and only use approved devices to send business emails.
Encryption
Email is a critical tool for business, but it’s also a common target for cyberattacks. As a result, securing email communication is a non-negotiable aspect of business operations. Fortunately, Fortinet is available to minimize the risk of cyberattacks on email. Encrypting emails allows attackers to read the message’s contents with the proper key. In addition to encryption, employees should follow best practices like using strong passwords and two-factor authentication and ensure that computers are always locked when not in use. A consistent company policy on these issues will help keep sensitive information secure. It’s also important to avoid downloading or opening suspicious email attachments. Attachments can contain malware that can compromise your systems or leak sensitive data. And if you’re sending confidential documents or files, use an encrypted file transfer solution. It will ensure that only the intended recipient can view the file and protect it from unauthorized access.
Two-Factor Authentication
Since email is an open format, attackers can easily read the contents if they intercept it. Encryption is one of the best email security practices that can help combat this threat by converting an email from plain text to ciphertext, making it harder for attackers to read the content of an email. Another way to improve email security is to use two-factor authentication. It is a very effective email security best practice that can help minimize hacking and data breaches. Finally, it’s important to regularly schedule security awareness training for employees and keep them up to date with the company’s email security policy and threats. It will improve their resistance against phishing attacks and other malicious emails that can slip through the email gateway. One single slip-up by an employee can be enough for hackers to bypass all other cyber defenses and cause a breach or compromise of confidential information.
Limit Access to Public Wi-Fi
Emails are among the most assault vectors hoodlums utilize to breach corporate resistances. Following email security, best practices can help enterprises increase resistance to email-borne threats and improve overall data protection strategies. Employees should be discouraged from accessing email on public Wi-Fi and encouraged only to use private, encrypted connections instead. When employees sign in to their business email on public Wi-Fi, an attacker on the network can intercept their Internet traffic and view their email communication—especially if it is unencrypted. Additionally, employees can expose their work computers to malware if they sign into their business email from public Wi-Fi and then go to shopping sites, social media sites, or other personal accounts. It is called a man-in-the-middle attack, a dangerous way to open a company’s inbox to hackers. Employees who must access their email on public Wi-Fi should pause and consider whether the task can wait. It’s not worth the risk for any business data, especially financial, customer or employee information, that could put the company at serious regulatory and legal risks.